


Flaming

by Lirillith



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Coming Out, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-09
Updated: 2011-10-09
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan's maintained a public persona for a long time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flaming

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a factoid from [this translated source](http://thisissternbild.com/2011/09/20/translated-tidbits-from-the-newtype-booklet/), stating that Nathan's okama persona is partly a mask, and also by a friend from high school who made it a point to make homophobic classmates as uncomfortable as possible, and written for a prompt by [](http://darlingfox.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **darlingfox**](http://darlingfox.dreamwidth.org/) at [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **fic_promptly**](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/). 

    The camp act goes back to high school. 

    By the time he was fourteen - tall, awkward, gangly, tormented by a perpetually cracking voice - most of his classmates had figured out he was gay.  He'd never tried to hide it, but he'd also never understood why it mattered.  And then his powers manifested when he accidentally set a chemistry lab table on fire.  He was never going to fit into any closet, even if he'd wanted to.  So, he decided, the best defense was a good offense.  Wearing heels and eye shadow, bleaching his hair and dying it with rainbow stripes, playing with his fire in the lunchroom when no teachers were looking: just his way of telling the kids who'd hate him anyway that he didn't need or want them.  They could tease him, but he could make them uncomfortable just by sitting there in class.  He knew which of them had more power. 

    College was a relief.  By his sophomore year, he'd stopped wearing heels, since half of his campus was either uphill or downhill from the other half.  He kept dyeing his hair; that was just fun.  Sometimes the makeup was, too, but he saved it for special occasions.  Right before an eight a.m. lecture on macroeconomics was not the best time to make your face your canvas. 

    When he first tried to debut as a hero, he couldn't find a sponsor.  He'd be damned if he'd pretend to be someone he wasn't to get anyone's approval, so he went the other direction, setting out to be fabulous in a way his teenage self could only dream of.  The real world had no dress code, especially not when you were your own boss. 

    He lets the mask drop from time to time.  It vanishes the instant he gets angry.  He doesn't usually put it on when it's just him and Keith, not that Keith ever notices.  He plays it up with Antonio, though Antonio passed the acid test ages ago.  He stows it if he's with his family - his mother won't stand for it - or with a guy he's serious about.  He's not butch, and he's never going to be, but he can turn a lisp on or off, leave his makeup at home when he goes back west for Thanksgiving.  He can drop a bit of the act when he's recording a PSA, more of it when he's meeting with investors, and then pick it back up for a TV interview. 

    "Do you actually... I don't know, see yourself as a woman?" Karina asks him one time.  It's late, and he's already dropped Pao-lin off at home.   

    "It's halfway an act, sweetie," he admits. 

    "Why do you do it?"

    "You need to ask?  You're a hero too."


End file.
